It's nice to be so loved (or: the world of IT is insane!)

[der_kluge]

At least you have people clamoring for you. I'm still sitting here, almost 6 months to the day since I got laid off, wondering what I'm going to do, and knowing the unemployment is about to run out.

Your recruiter has never called, btw. I didn't want to bug you, but I'm willing to now. I can send you my resume again if you need it, but please put a bug in her ear for me.

Oh man, I'm sorry. I forwarded the resume to them, and she responded to me saying that they didn't really recruit PC tech type positions. I figured she'd at least given you the courtesy of a call or email. That sucks. I think PC tech type jobs are really hard to find. I don't have much insight into that field. Sorry. I suspect it has a lot to do with who you know.

 

[der_kluge]

Recruiters suck. At my last job, where I was largely responsible for hiring the IT staff that would work for me, I let a recruiters send me people once, for a network admin. Every conversation I had with them was full of them lying through their teeth about the skillset of the applicants. Every friend I have that's used one has regaled me with horror stories of being sent on interviews where they knew 30 seconds after the interview started that they weren't a good match for the job.

I've heard stores of a "bait and switch". My previous team hired a guy like this at my previous job. Some placement firms from India will do this, apparently quite often. The trick is, they call you (from India) and you interview the guy, and he's stellar. Knows his stuff inside and out, so you hire him. And then - they send a different guy - an idiot, who's read a textbook on the software, and has no idea what he's using. Surprisingly, some of them probably float from job to job this way, and learn enough of the software, and get some experience under the belt, they they'll eventually learn it through enough exposure. And some companies are more diligent about weeding them out, and others may be oblivious.

Heh. I even had one try to get me to interview *one of my own people*. One of my techs was looking to leave (on good terms -- we were a non-profit and paid crap) and let one of these places talk him into letting them look for him. I was advertising for his replacement, since it always took me months to find the right person. Stupid recruiter didn't even look at his resume long enough to realize she was trying to send him on an interview for his own damned job. Was especially funny as we were both sitting in the workroom when she called first me, then him.

That happened to me at my previous job. These recruits would call me and have something, and it'd be at the same company I was already working for. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[Krieg]

When did headhunters become "recruiters"?

 

[Torm]

Oh man, I'm sorry. I forwarded the resume to them, and she responded to me saying that they didn't really recruit PC tech type positions. I figured she'd at least given you the courtesy of a call or email. That sucks. I think PC tech type jobs are really hard to find. I don't have much insight into that field. Sorry. I suspect it has a lot to do with who you know.

That's okay. I had great confidence that you had passed my resume on, and that the ball had been dropped further on.

I begin to suspect you're right about the "who you know" part of that, 'cause I've had so many irons in the fire my hands are burning, so to speak. With no results. :\

 

[der_kluge]

That's okay. I had great confidence that you had passed my resume on, and that the ball had been dropped further on.

I begin to suspect you're right about the "who you know" part of that, 'cause I've had so many irons in the fire my hands are burning, so to speak. With no results. :\

Well, at least I got a chance to improve your resume for you.

 

[MonsterMash]

Well I've had similar experiences with the recruiters in the Technology market here in the UK, generally I find that if the recruiter is unwilling to send me a job/person spec my interest declines greatly.

My last three jobs have been in the government sector where jobs tend to be recruited directly by the employer with clearly stated pay scales (not great, but at least you know where you are coming from) and you always know who you are applying for and what the specification for the job is (no guarantee that that's what you actually end up doing though).

It is pretty much the same situation for new graduates in the UK for IT jobs of the usual rubbish of you need experience, but we won't give you the job that will give you that experience, other jobs possibly not so bad as the job market is pretty bouyant.

 

[Belen]

I feel your pain, man. I don't get recruiting calls, but it seems like all my efforts to find jobs are fruitless because everybody wants 3 to 5 years of experience. Every job. I just graduated from college, and I wonder where people go for those 3 to 5 years of experience, if no place will frikkin' hire them in the first place.

Which is why I'm working part time now at a grocery store. Even if I were full time, I'd be making about 16,000 a year.

I'm still looking for jobs. There are jobs out there, but apparently none that I am both qualified for and interested in.

Except for one, at my alma mater, in the library where I worked for four years as a student, so I do have 3 to 5 years of experience. And there's an opening. I just hope I get an interview.

Willing to move? We're hiring right now.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I'm in Florence, SC, and have lived here for most of my life, but to be honest, for the right money I'm not sure that even matters anymore, as long as it is in the continental U.S.

I'm a PC Technician/Systems Administrator - hardware and software research, installation, troubleshoot, repair, and upgrade. No programming. :\ 9 years pro experience, 22 years as a hobbiest, but no formal credentials (college degree, specialty training).

Did you just apply for a job at AgF... in Columbia?

 

[der_kluge]

If nothing else, this thread might land Torm or RW a job!

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm currently not willing to move. I've sunk my teeth into Atlanta, and I won't let go until it gives up and gives me a good job. I also have a girlfriend and a lot of great friends with connections here, so something will open up eventually. I'll make do in the meanwhile with my crappy Publix job.

Thanks for the help, and if you know anything in Atlanta (or better yet, Decatur, the specific part of metro-Atlanta I live in), that's great.

Torm, I don't know if it'd help you, but I look at a lot of university websites for job listings. Try www.emory.edu, click on the careers link, and check out some job listings. They have a few IT positions, I know. Big universities like Emory tend to be pretty reliable, from what I've heard.